N.B. global frame of reference -
Music, Literature, the Visual Arts, Landscape, Current Affairs.
A special emphasis on Dorset and Greece, plus other countries where I've lived and worked (and others which I visit regularly or know well) - Jim.

Thursday, 30 June 2016

"How does one write about spending time in Corfu at this particular time without mentioning the stinky garbage piles?"

"I found the city of Corfu to be overwrought with a stench from unsightly, uncollected mountains of garbage, that I personally could not tolerate. I believe myself to be a very ordinary person and suspect that my experience of working hard for many years and saving money for hard-earned vacations is something many prospective tourists share. Therefore, I would be extraordinarily disappointed if I had booked a holiday in the city of Corfu at this particular time."

I'll be back in Corfu tomorrow. I hope the situation has improved by now - for the sake of everyone, as well as for my daughter and grandchildren visiting from the USA.

Update -1st July - back in Corfu. Still a disgusting and intolerable situation for everyone on the island. I learned from one acquaintance of people who'd taken three lorries at six am to dump the intolerable local piles of trash and rotting refuse down an isolated ravine.

I gather the local authorities have been trying to persuade the better-organised municipalities of Epirus, such as Ioannina, to take the Corfiot trash (and the garbage from Lefkada). They refuse. Roma entrepreneurs are now charging hotels and wealthy individuals upwards of 500 Euros a utility- truck-load to dispose of trash-piles "elsewhere" on the island. You just have to know the right number to phone.

From eKathimerini, Thanos Tsiros - "Tax dodgers in Greece enjoy multiple benefits: They pay less tax, they avoid social security contributions, they can protect their main residence from confiscation and have access to a number of social benefits, ranging from free nursery places for their children to various allowances".

Ian Bleasdale:" I have finished my Book titled SALVATOR LOCATED in which I have attempted to unravel the walks Archduke Ludwig Salvator made all over the Island in the 1880s with modern-day photographs of (nearly) all the buildings he sketched. Included are Maps showing his routes and identifying - I hope - the place names he recorded... It is available for £24.00 or €32 including postage and will also be in the Gaios Bookshop". Ian continues: "The easy way to buy is to send a cheque (or a Postal Order) made out to Ian K. Bleasdale to: Ian and Elizabeth Bleasdale, Glebe Cottage, Church Road, MAUGHOLD, Isle of Man, IM7 1AS British Isles (or GB) ".

Popi's name is inscribed here as a memorial of her Paxiot origins - she is buried in Corfu.

"On Paxos there are really no villages, only groups of houses of one family, so that the members of all those houses have the same name. Everyone in Bogdanatika is a Bogdanos" (translation Margarita Luzzatto, 2011).

"On Paxos there are really no villages, only groups of houses of one family, so that the members of all those houses have the same name. Everyone in Bogdanatika is a Bogdanos" (translation Margarita Luzzatto, 2011).

It would seem that many villages (or desperate individuals with tourist interests) are trying to find their own temporary solutions and more discreet places to dump the rotting piles of trash. You only have to imagine the "blame-game" kavgas on Corfu's TV Channel last night.

From Corfu Press - "The 'temporary emergency solution' (impromptu dumps, landfill waste on private land and conversion of sewage- into transfer- stations (sic)",

People who want to hush this up, for fear of being negative about their adopted island, do not help Corfu or other dependent islands in the long run. Every tourist agency ought to be putting about warnings about this intolerable and increasingly dangerous situation.

Sunday, 26 June 2016

There are some similar Greek words that always seem to cause me a little confusion and embarrassment when I use them in conversation:

Δάχτυλο - δαχτυλίδι (finger - ring)

λίμνη - λιμάνι (lake - port)

They're probably not confusing at all to others, but I have a minor mental block and a habit of calling a finger a ring. I must learn to repeat, in Greek, "Is that a ring on your finger". Better late than never.

SOS! There are plenty of studies and reports:urgent help and immediate practical action needed on the Greek island of Corfu. There are hundreds of tons of rubbish lying all around the island, it will take weeks to clear it , if a temporary solution can be found. It is estimated that Corfu produces around 100,000 tons of (mostly unseparated and unrecycled) rubbish each year. It could be much more.A national disgrace, as well as a regional nightmare. The local administration seems paralysed and unable to even begin to solve the problem.No progress so far - αδιέξοδο...Corfu Press - Η συνάντηση έληξε σε τεταμένο κλίμα, με κατοίκους να αποδοκιμάζουν το κυβερνητικό και αυτοιδοικητικό κλιμάκιο, κι έτσι ο Υπουργός Εσωτερικών αναχώρησε για το αεροδρόμιο, όπου αναμένεται να προχωρήσει σε δηλώσεις λίγο πριν την αναχώρησή του για Αθήνα. Είναι εύκολα αντιληπτό ότι αναμένονται ραγδαίες εξελίξεις τις επόμενες ώρες/ημέρες....

"Listen to The Economist Washington Bureau Chief David Rennie describe the potential economic consequences to the U.S. economy of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union, and the parallels between Brexit voters and supporters of Donald Trump. "The last thing the American government needs right now is global turmoil in any significant economy,'' says Rennie.
Britain's investments in the United States amount to half a trillion dollars, Rennie says in his discussion with Chief Content Officer David Ellis and CQ Roll Call's Managing Editor Adriel Bettelheim".

"We'll examine the effects of the U.K.'s vote to leave the E.U. with an expert economic panel, including Mark Zandi of Moody's Analytics, Time Magazine's Rana Foroohar, the Economist's David Rennie, and David Ignatius of the Washington Post".

Saturday, 25 June 2016

It is one thing to read about the piles of bags full of rotting garbage and rubbish that are piled up every 100 metres or so in and around Corfu Town and alongside the main roads and side-roads on the island, it is another thing to see them with your own eyes or to encounter them through your own sense of smell. "The Summer of Discontent" must not be allowed to continue, for reasons of public health.

We returned to Corfu from Epirus today, and it was a shock in every respect. I bought two local Corfiot newspapers about the grim and deteriorating situation, - two papers about the uncollected garbage to add to the piles of uncollected garbage.

We're heading off to Paxos or back to the coast of Epirus (hopefully before the garbage mountains are shipped over there). Until then, we'll have to ask our visitors to keep their eyes tightly shut as we drive them to their favourite beaches. Pity the pedestrians and the hapless tourists coming ashore from cruise ships. Lovers of Corfu and first-time visitors don't travel thousands of miles to witness and endure this degradation and misery. It is even worse for the locals, the long-suffering Corfiots. This is not a new situation, it's just a hell of a lot worse than in the past. How can one enjoy any kind of cultural event when the basic priorities of civilised life aren't addressed by the authorities? It is a question of priorities, and the implementation of existing and funded strategies to deal with such foreseeable situations in a timely way, before the major crises hit.

Πλατεία Δημαρχείου- Φιλαρμονική Σιναράδων Μπαντίνα (Aκυρώθηκε)Update: I understand the Minister of the Interior will arrive in Corfu tomorrow.

Corfu, June 2016Before me, the wine-dark sea;Behind me, rising mountainsOf garbage.Yannis Ritsos, from After the Defeat (tr. Edmund Keeley):"Our country's honour thrown out in the garbage...maybe we can establish a newrelationship with naturegazing out, beyond the barbed wire, at a bit of sea, the stones, the grass,or maybe a cloud at sunset, heavy, violet, touching"Ritsos was writing this poem when I first came to Greece, 1967-1968, when people had a healthy relationship with nature. Nowadays it is not just the country's honour thrown out in the garbage. In Corfu, it's the garbage thrown out on top of the mountains of garbage.

"The surrounding area was in a terrible state. The rubbish was piled up two metres high on both sides of the road...rats were chasing passers-by along the broken pavements. Spring flowers were in bloom, but nature's efforts to conceal the dreadful state of the place went in vain. The entire landscape had been devastated, because of relentless greed".

"Germany is willing to negotiate an association agreement with Britain, but wants to avoid making too many concessions that would give incentives for other states to follow suit. Other countries that might want to leave the European Union could be France, Austria, Finland, the Netherlands and Hungary, the paper notes. To deter other European countries from leaving the bloc, the European Union “should refrain from setting wrong incentives for other member states when renegotiating relations.” Therefore, “The extent of the knock-on effect will depend on the handling of the United Kingdom.”

An interesting essay on panigyria in Corfu, published in October 1974, written by Gerasimos Hytiris, in "Simioseis enos Kerkyraiou" ("Notes of a Corfiot"), Athens, 2010, pages 268-270. The collection is introduced and edited by Professor Theodosis Pylarinos, who kindly presented me with a copy of this absorbing book.